My name is Vannette Simmons and i teach first grade in the great state of Texas! I am not new to technology but I feel like a lot of it has left me behind. Now I am taking a Masters course and trying to ride the wave of technology.
Join me as I explore the impact that technology has had on education.
Welcome
Hi Vannette,
I'm pleased to be able to be the first to be able to say welcome. We look forward to you sharing your experiences as a first grade teacher, and as a Masters student. I especially am excited by the opportunity to read about your experienes as you work to integrate technology into your teaching! Thank you for joining ElEdblog.
Let me introduce myself
I am chief bottle washer at the Enabling Support Foundation and I'd like to tell you a little about us. You too are not a newcomer. I'd like to hear journey.
I had my first taste of online communication in 1979 with a 300 baud modem and instead of websites we had one phone line Bulletin Boards. In the 1980's there were two clearly defined users of online communication. Persons with disabilities who found that the networks "level the playing field" was one group. The second was K-12 education. These were the true pioneers of the Internet.
In 1995 the Enabling Support Foundation was created to get technology and know how into the hands of persons with disabilities. It quickly spread to include educational disabilities and learning styles. If you visit the ESF site www.enabling.org, go to the Educational Synthesis tab. The EdSynth website which is a vast collection of both unique material and links to other educational sites. If you google famous americans, educational synthesis will most likely be the first entry.
Recently we have embarked on a more directed approach of providing material for teachers. For example, we created a lesson on prey/predator that involves photos and text, and three kinds of games the kids can play to get the concept.
We are exploring the use of SimPark to teach ecology, the scientific method, statistics, etc. And we start with kindergarten.
And now for the commercial. ESF is looking for teachers who want help in designing lessons or explore the use of tools like SimPark. This is an open invitation to drop a line and talk about how ESF can help. No charges are involved.
Hope I can interest you.
Thanks for the welcome
I look forward to the journey.
"Excellence is not an act but a habit. The things you do the most are the things you will do the best" Marva Collins
How about a little low tech research
I would guess that first grade children are familiar with handedness and a poll of the class would show that about 90% are right handed. Taking such a poll and putting it into a table would be an introduction to data analysis.
How about a little research on that. Have the children get the handedness of their parents and sibs and look at the question of whether handedness runs in families.
I would also guess that none of the children know about eyedness. Here is a wonderful demonstration that will be fun for the kids and eye opening (pun intended) for many people. Take a piece of paper about 4 inches (the exact size is not critical) and cut a small 1 inch hole in the center. With both eyes open hold it at arms length, fixate on something through the hole and bring it to your eye. Which eye did you bring it to? Do it again and bring it to your other eye. I will leave it to you to see what happens.
It is a fun exercise and the kids will love it. Now explore with them the relationship between eyedness and handedness. Also bring in the family. If you try it, share the experience with us.
These data can be used to explore relationships between variables, prediction, and a general intro to the scientific method. If you have internet access in your classroom, you can put the data on the Google spreadsheet and use that to explore and graph the data.